Nowadays, imposing influence and authority through military expedition is no longer easily possible due to the intellectual growth and awareness of the people around the world. In case it was implemented, this [tactic] will impose an expensive burden on the shoulders of the invaders. This is exactly why the colonialists have been changing their ways of imposing their influence in the countries over the past century.

Therefore, the colonialists have reached a conclusion that the best method to expand their influence is through invading the people’s culture and altering their mentality. They are intending to manifest their own approved-values as progressive ones in place of the natural norms of the people. In this way, they would be assured that their future benefits in these countries are kept undisturbed.

The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a meeting with the commanders and officials of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, stressed on the necessity of being conscious of the enemy’s influence. His Excellency said: «Today, the enemy’s influence is one of the most significant threats to our country. They are seeking leverage. What does influence mean? It might be an economical influence or a defense one which are definitely among the least significant ones. Defense leverage is not insignificant at all. However, intellectual, cultural and political influences pose much more important effect. Defense leverage has its own factors. Various officials – including those among the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps – are being successful in preventing such leverage, in God’s willing. In regard to the economical aspect, the economist officials should keep their eyes peeled and be attentive to prevent any opportunity for such influence… In comparison with cultural economy, political economy, political influence and cultural influence, it [economical influence] is less significant. However, the most significant one is the cultural influence.»

Therefore, according to Ayatollah Khamenei, although economical and defense leverages are considered to be disturbing, but the cultural and the political ones are more unsettling. The Supreme Leader has stressed the necessity and importance of culture: «Sometimes, cultural problems are what worrying me and rendering me restless…» Therefore, this statement briefly notes the importance of this aspect of influences.

Brzezinski (an American theoretician) described the circumstances of the collapse of the Soviet Union: «The Soviet Union eventually imploded and fragmented, falling victim not so much to a direct military defeat as to disintegration accelerated by economic and social strains.» Brzezinski said that they didn’t rely on political power, or on economic and military power, only by benefitting from cultural ways and effective use of media that they were able to reach their goal. Goal-oriented media were successful in paving the way for leverage through the Soviet Union. Thereby, the media are considered one of the most important tools of altering the lifestyle. A step toward achieving this is through encouraging the use of the 100 percent western symbols and expel of any manifestation of Islamic civilization within the society.

Cultural influence is a base for the intellectual influence, since the former can alter the individual’s mental, moral and spiritual beliefs. Initially, the change is invisible for a prolonged period of time, which develops into a much rooted and fundamental institutionalization. That is why, the elites of the society might become aware of the enemy’s goal when it is already late and a considerable portion of them have already been affected and there is no way back.

One of the methods of influence is through altering the Islamic-Iranian lifestyle. This is being accomplished through the enemy’s investment in changing the Islamic phenomena with the utilization of fashion and western clothing, advertising and promoting food products related to multinational companies with Zionist share such as McDonalds, and striving to spread the western lifestyle and to reduce the religious beliefs through the various satellite television networks with more than 100 Persian-speaking television stations.

The priority of posing cultural leverage lies within the fact that if it is achieved, it will automatically pave the way to pose further leverage in the other aspects of the Islamic revolution, without even being confronted with much opposition.

Usually, leverage seeps only when there is heedlessness and negligence. In other words, in the absence of attentiveness to the ideological and strategic demarcation, illusion and credulity of the enemy’s plot can facilitate the enemy’s infiltration and slipping in an attempt to return to its strategic point that we have been successful in keeping them a bay behind shut doors.

The Supreme Leader says: «The enemy is trying to change the society’s beliefs in the cultural aspect». Thereby, the primary and the most urgent method to defy this leverage, that the Supreme Leader has repeatedly stressed on, is to have a deep and wholehearted belief that is comparable to the conspiracy of the cultural influence.

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